The three firefighters who joined rescuers on the scene tried to cover the bear in a boat tarp to get a better grip on the animal — but the strategy didn’t go as planned, the Herald reports.

Though the animal was exhausted and panting, it wasn’t too tired to wrestle with the firefighters, one of whom is a local wrestling coach, according to the Herald.

“He took one shot at the bear, and he got it tipped over, but the bear kept rolling and just pushed him right off,” firefighter Neal Vatnsdal said of the wrestling coach’s moves to subdue the wild animal, the newspaper reports.

Firefighters then turned to the Jaws of Life to rescue the bear, photos posted by the department of natural resources show. The tool is traditionally used to save people trapped in car wrecks or stuck in other disastrous scenarios.

As rescuers used the Jaws of Life to free the animal’s head, the bear lay on the grass and waited, a photo shows. And the tool finished the job.

“He wasn’t really happy to see me,” Vatnsdal said of the bear, according to the Herald.

The bear didn’t stick around to say thank you, either.

“As soon as the can came off its head, it took a couple of big breaths and then it just kind of took a look around at everybody that was standing there and then made a beeline for the woods,” Benjamin told the Herald.

Photos of the rescue were shared widely on Facebook.

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources

A Facebook post about the incident, posted by the department of natural resources on Sept. 10, has been shared more than 800 times.